I GAZED upon the glorious sky | |
And the green mountains round, | |
And thought that when I came to lie | |
At rest within the ground, | |
'T were pleasant, that in flowery June, | 5 |
When brooks send up a cheerful tune, | |
And groves a joyous sound, | |
The sexton's hand, my grave to make, | |
The rich, green mountain-turf should break. | |
|
A cell within the frozen mould, | 10 |
A coffin borne through sleet, | |
And icy clods above it rolled, | |
While fierce the tempests beat | |
Away!I will not think of these | |
Blue be the sky and soft the breeze, | 15 |
Earth green beneath the feet, | |
And be the damp mould gently pressed | |
Into my narrow place of rest. | |
|
There through the long, long summer hours | |
The golden light should lie, | 20 |
And thick young herbs and groups of flowers | |
Stand in their beauty by. | |
The oriole should build and tell | |
His love-tale close beside my cell; | |
The idle butterfly | 25 |
Should rest him there, and there be heard | |
The housewife bee and humming-bird. | |
|
And what if cheerful shouts at noon | |
Come, from the village sent, | |
Or song of maids, beneath the moon | 30 |
With fairy laughter blent? | |
And what if, in the evening light, | |
Betrothèd lovers walk in sight | |
Of my low monument? | |
I would the lovely scene around | 35 |
Might know no sadder sight nor sound. | |
|
I know that I no more should see | |
The season's glorious show, | |
Nor would its brightness shine for me, | |
Nor its wild music flow; | 40 |
But if, around my place of sleep, | |
The friends I love should come to weep, | |
They might not haste to go. | |
Soft airs, and song, and light, and bloom | |
Should keep them lingering by my tomb. | 45 |
|
These to their softened hearts should bear | |
The thought of what has been, | |
And speak of one who cannot share | |
The gladness of the scene; | |
Whose part, in all the pomp that fills | 50 |
The circuit of the summer hills, | |
Is that his grave is green; | |
And deeply would their hearts rejoice | |
To hear again his living voice. | |